Silverstone Temjin (SST-TJ03): Aluminum Case & Eudemon Fan Controller Review
Provided by SilverStone http://www.silverstonetek.com/
This
case by Silverstone is meant to be a high-end, sleek designed case that
is supposed to be tool-less and silent. This case can be used for a
server or for a high performance workstation due to its upgradeability
path. In this review, we will see how it lives up to the purpose the
company assigned to it.
We also received the Eudemon fan controller, which is different than
most fan controllers on the market. This fan controller can automatically
adjust your fan speeds according to the temperature of the corresponding
sensor. This is its main feature and it has a few other bells and whistles
too.
Features
Silverstone (SST-TJ03) Case
- Material: Aluminum Alloy
- Color: Black or Silver
- Drive Bays: 6x 5.25” Drive Bays (exposed), 6x 3.5” Drive Bays (hidden)
- Cooling: 1x 120 x 25 mm Front Intake Fan, 1x 80 x 25 mm Top Exhaust Fan, 2x 80 x 25 mm Rear Exhaust Fans
- Expansion Slots: 7
- Power Supply: Redundant PS2/ Standard PS2
- Net Weight: 8.1kg / 17.8 lb
- Gross Weight: 10.6 kg / 23.3 lb
- Dimensions: 590mm (D) x 200mm (W) x 502mm (H) 23.6” x 8” x 20.1” inches
Looking at the
manual, I found a small error. In the manual, it seems to have the width
and height numbers reversed. It had the height as 200mm and the width
502mm. That seemed a bit odd for a tower case, a small but notable error.
I noticed that there were no exposed 3.5” inch bays which might
make a few people unhappy because they will have to use a cage kit to
make their floppy drive fit, and on a server case even, people still
use floppy drives. Maybe SilverStone is planning to starting thinking
legacy free? But nonetheless, you have plenty of bays! 6 of each type
should be enough for most high-end computers or servers. Talking about
servers, the ability to use a Redundant PS2 Power Supply is another
strong point. The case comes with a rear PSU backplate cover that
can be taken out and be replaced with the one in the picture below.
However there is no power supply included in this already expensive
case.
While looking at the manual and redundant PSU plate, I will note the manual is very well done and informative.
The front switches are made out of the aluminum alloy and are pretty good quality. The whole case in fact has an excellent silver finish and its very light considering its size. Below the switches is a little door that pops open when you push it.
You can see you have 4 USB ports, a firewire port, and a microphone/sound out port. That is good to have and if you don’t use them, the front door conceals them very well. Usually, in many cases you see on the market, they only have 2 front USB ports.
Next lets look at the lower door on the front.
You see the door opens very nicely. I would like to note that the doors in the case have magnets to keep them closed. They swing freely until the magnetic force shuts it. In the picture above, you can see that the fan filter pops off very easily and the filter can be cleaned or replaced. Heck, you can just cut a coffee filter and replace it if you wanted to. Since the front intake is 120mm and the only intake, this makes dust management an easy task.
Cooling is very good in this case. Aluminum lets the heat transfer better into the air of the room so that is something to consider. The fans that are used are quiet so you do not need to worry about the noise they create or about replacing them.
You have 2 rear exhaust fans, 1 top exhaust, and 1 front intake in this case.
Nice :)
The removable motherboard tray is a huge plus for this case. It gives the ease of taking out the tray and installing your motherboard, RAM, CPU, etc. You know how it is to work in a cluttered case, so why not remove it!
The feet of this case have rubber so the case won’t be slipping around on your desk or floor, all cases should have these standard.
You can see that the Silverstone Temjin (SST-TJ03) Case uses thumb screws for all the side panels, which are removable. To remove the motherboard tray, you also have to use the thumbscrews. Other than that, the back of this case is normal.
Conclusion
I find that this case is of very high quality, being light and having plenty of space for expandability. It is very trim on features and lacks much on innovation. The Chenbro case we reviewed a few months ago was very nifty with its tool-less design. This case claims to be tool-less, but it isn’t. You need screws for the PCI cards, you screw in your drives, and it’s just a simple case with some functional features. The removable motherboard tray is especially nice. So if you are looking for a quality server or high-end workstation case that doesn’t have the tool-less features this is a good case. It is expensive and with the case being so expensive, I would have expected the fan controller to be included and as well a power supply unit would have made it a better value. Unfortunately it does not come with these things.
The Silverstone Temjin (SST-TJ03) Case
Pros
Overall Quality of Metal & Finish
Dust Management
Quiet Fans included
Cons
Does not come with the Perfectly Matching Fan Controller Unit
Expensive
Hard to Find
Not Tool-less as stated
No PSU included
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SilverStone Eudemon Fan Controller
This fan controller does a few things. It has three temperature sensors. One is for the CPU, Case, and the Hard Drive. With these three sensors, it will control the three fans that you have according to the temperature of the sensor. For example, if your CPU were running hot, the fan speed for the CPU would increase. There are 6 levels of fan speeds. The unit receives the main power through a 4-pin Molex connector and then has its own 3-pin connectors for the fans.
This fan controller also has a temperature alarm so when a certain probe reaches a user defined temperature it will alarm. Another cool feature is that it simply has the date and time on it. With the nicely blue backlit screen its great while playing a FPS game to see the time. With the clock, you also have an additional alarm clock.
You can also connect the Power and HDD LED connectors to this fan controller unit. It will show activity on the LCD. Look how nicely that fan controller looks in the The Silverstone Temjin (SST-TJ03) Case. The fan controller should come standard with this case.
Conclusion
This fan controller is fully functional as stated and does it job well. If it were about $20-30 dollars it would be a pretty good value I'd say. The finish is very nice and would probably not fit the design of other cases since there are very few brushed aluminum cases out there. That brings me to the point again that this unit should be included with the The Silverstone Temjin (SST-TJ03) Case. It fits it just perfectly!
Pros
Build Quality and Looks
Automatic Adjusting to Temperature
Time/Alarm Functions
Simplicity
Cons
Expensive
Hard to Find
Alternative Pricing:
